Couple in Waiting
by Biba79
Summary: “You are asking me if it’s strange that you don’t address your feelings?”


**Title: **_Couple in Waiting_  
**Pairing/Characters: **Booth/Brennan  
**Spoilers**: Sometime After 5x04- The Beautiful Day in the Neighborhood and before 5x05 A Night at the Bones Museum  
**Disclaimer**: _Bones_ belongs to Fox, HH, etc!  
**Author's Note**: Thanks to spacekid77 for the read-through, and her awesome help.  
**Prompt:** Booth/Brennan - Booth finally tells her he loves her... extra points for unusual circumstances! By tempertemper77 Bones Comment Fic Meme at bitesize_bones at LJ  
**Summary**: "You are asking me if it's strange that you don't address your feelings?"

--

"What is your gut telling you? Is Ander Knox guilty?" Brennan asked as she went through her files in front of her.

Booth and Brennan were alone at the lab, sitting on her couch working for the last three hours on the Knox case.

Booth didn't respond. He seemed to be millions of miles away; he was staring at his file, but he seemed to be looking through it, as if lost in thought.

"Booth, I asked you a question!"

He finally looked at her, although he still seemed a little lost. "What? Yeah, sure."

"Do you even know what I asked you?" Brennan put her files down and focused on him fully.

"I'm sorry." Booth shook his head to get out of the fog he was in. "What did you ask?"

"Forget about it, what's going on with you?" Brennan asked concerned. She has rarely seen him this distracted.

"Nothing. I was just thinking. Can we get back to the case now?" He asked totally alert now.

Brennan was not going to forget it; she knew that he needed to talk about whatever was keeping his mind away from the case. "What were you thinking about?" She pressed.

Booth took a moment to put his thoughts together; this was going to be harder than he thought. "Can I ask you something?" Booth asked and finally looked her in the eyes.

"Yeah," Brennan said. "You can ask me anything."

"Are we a couple?" Booth took a deep breath. "I mean a couple in waiting?" He could feel his hands shaking; he couldn't believe he was asking her about this.

"What?" Brennan asked taken aback. She was not expecting _this_ question.

"Well, it's just for a long time, everyone assumes we are dating, we kissed that one time and we keep dancing around each other like it's never going to happen." He explained as best as he could.

"The only time we kissed was under the mistletoe, that wasn't us, it was Caroline." Brennan tried to rationalize.

Since he started this conversation, he might as well finish it. He knew now it was too late to backtrack. This was either going to blow up in his face, or be the best day of his life. "That was us, at least it was me. It was the best kiss of my life; I just regretted that it was too short." He confessed shyly.

"Oh." Brennan was speechless for once.

"What are we doing, or not doing?" Booth asked nervously.

"What's going on with you? Is your tumor back? Why is this suddenly coming up?" Brennan kept thinking, _avoid, avoid, avoid_. Her heart was racing and pounding, she couldn't believe he had brought up the kiss from more than two years ago.

Booth ignored her question; he knew he was perfectly healthy at the moment. "Isn't it strange that we won't address this issue, obviously we have feelings and we never talk about it."

"You are asking me if it's strange that you don't address your feelings?" She asked with a smirk in her face.

"Did you just insult me, Bones?" He laughed. Of course she would say something like that to him in the middle of a serious conversation that could change them forever.

"What? No! Of course not. But I _was_ making fun of you." That smile on her face always made his heart skip a beat.

"Yeah, I can see you are getting better at making jokes at my expense."

She was serious now, "Do you really want to get into this?"

"Yes, I do."

She was quiet, waiting for him to say something.

"When was the last time you dated anyone?" He asked her apprehensively.

"Are you serious? This is none of your business." It really wasn't, but she just didn't want to embarrass herself, because it had been so long.

"It is my business when we are talking about us."

"There is no US."

"Maybe there is, maybe there isn't. We don't know that yet."

Brennan took a few seconds and answered his question. "Mark Gaffney and Jason DeFry." What the hell, right? He already knew everything about her, she might as well say it out loud.

"Exactly my point." He answered excitedly.

"What is your point?"

"You haven't dated in more than a year."

"What about you?" She backfired to take the focus from her.

"Let's just say that it's been more than that." Booth admitted.

"So, what does that prove?" Brennan asked curiously - for her it always needed to be a scientific proof of something.

"Well, I haven't dated anyone else because… I'm waiting for you." He got up from the couch and started pacing the floor. He couldn't believe he was saying all of this. He felt like he was about to pass out any minute, he never thought that telling her would be so hard.

"Really?" Brennan smiled.

"Look, I have been in love with you forever. Sweets told me my brain scan shows that I'm only in love with you because of that damn dream, and Cam told me to be careful because I might drive you away. But I just can't keep this in any longer. It's driving me crazy. Besides Sweets is wrong, I've been in love with you way before my coma and I think that you have grown enough the past few years to know that you won't run away… and who knows you might even feel the same way." He said all of that in one breath pacing the floor, not even looking at her.

His heart was pounding in his chest like never before. But he stopped his pacing and looked at her, because what he was going to say next, he needed to be looking into her eyes. "So yeah, I love you, I love you, I love you." Maybe if he kept repeating those three little words, she would say it back to him too.

"Wow!" Brennan said surprised at his outburst. "That's a lot to take in." She took a deep breath to calm down.

"I'm sorry, it's just…"

"No, don't be." She interrupted him. "So last month when you said you love me in an 'atta girl' way, you didn't mean that exactly, did you?"

"Well, I kind of chickened out at the last minute." He answered, embarrassed. Suddenly he started pacing again. How could he confess to her that he was weak? He was supposed to be strong and cocky, but when it came to telling her how he felt, he backed out.

"Yeah, I figured that out just now." She got up from the couch and moved to stand in front of him, forcing him to stop his pacing. "Stop." She put a hand to his chest, now they were face to face.

Booth looked into her eyes, trying to understand what was going to happen or how Brennan was feeling. This was just too much, maybe he was doing this because he hadn't slept in the last 48 hours.

"You asked me if we are a couple in waiting?"

"Yeah, well, we have done everything a couple would do, from going out to dinner, and spending most of our time together, we finish each other's sentences, I could go on and on. All we haven't done yet is… you know, cross the line and jump into this one hundred percent." He ran his hand over his face, his nerves betraying him.

"I thought you were against co-workers crossing the line?" She asked uncertainly. The only reason she hadn't said anything before was because of his stupid line… or maybe because she was also scared.

"I was, but not anymore. I can't stop thinking about you, Bones." He confessed again.

"That's good news." She smiled.

"Is it?" He asked and his heart was still pounding; suddenly this started being a good feeling.

"I don't think we're a couple in waiting anymore." Brennan said and took a step toward him. "I have been thinking about you a lot too."

"Really?" He was suddenly feeling butterflies in his stomach.

"Yes, really!" She took his hand in hers.

"So, do you lo..." He couldn't finish asking his question because she reached up and pressed her lips into his. The kiss was soft and tender and he could remember exactly what she tasted like, a strawberry taste that was to die for. So, he cupped her face and with his right hand stroked her cheek. It was exactly what he had been wanting for a long time. His other hand went to her hair as he pulled her in closer to him and the kiss deepened.

When it ended, Booth kept his eyes closed, still enjoying the moment. "Bones." He breathed her name softly, not sure what to say. He was still in shock that she had kissed him.

This was definitely a kiss they would remember.

"This counts as our first kiss, the other one was just manipulated by Caroline, it doesn't count." Brennan said sweetly with a loving smile on her face.

"I concur." He smiled at her. It was the biggest smile she had seen on his face in a long time.

"So, what do we do now?" She asked him unsure what was coming next.

"We do what couples do." He kissed her softly again.

"I'm scared though." Brennan confessed after they parted again.

"I know. I am too. But we're in this together, right?"

"Yes." She kissed him again, this time a little more powerful. "I love you too." She said and he kept on kissing her.

They would get back to the case tomorrow.

--The End--

Thanks for reading!


End file.
